How to promote gift cards in your Shopify store

Gift cards have become temporarily available on all Shopify subscription plans, so if you want to start selling them in your store, you’ve picked the right moment.

Shopify gift cards are extremely easy to create and there are many ways to promote them.

One way to let your customers know you’re offering gift cards is a festive floating button 👇

You can place this button site-wide or on selected pages (we’ll show you how to do that in a moment). When a customer clicks it, up pops a selection of gift cards available in your store:

Then, by clicking the desired card amount, a customer automatically adds it to their shopping cart without leaving the page they’re currently on. Easy peasy!

If you want to go a little more aggressive promoting your gift cards, you can create a larger-size banner that will pop up when a customer stays inactive for a few seconds or scrolls down 50% of the page, for example 👇

Technically, it works the same way: when a customer hits ‘SELECT THE AMOUNT,’ up pops the selection widget that allows for adding gift cards to the shopping cart with a click.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to implement this solution using Getsitecontrol and sell more gift cards on Shopify.

Ready to acquire this secret knowledge? Let’s dive right in.

How to promote gift cards on Shopify using Getsitecontrol

Getsitecontrol is a zero-code app, so all you need to do is select a popup template from the gallery, tweak a few settings, and publish it on your website. Even if you consider yourself a non-techie, the entire process should take less than half an hour.

Before getting started, we suggest that you add the Getsitecontrol app to your store.

Step 1. Pick a gift card selection template

Log into your Getsitecontrol account, hit Explore popular use cases, and proceed to gift card promotion

This button will take you to the template gallery, where you need to pick a template featuring a gift card selection.

Once you find the one you like, click on it, and follow the prompts on the right-hand side to add it to your dashboard.

Step 2. Customize the copy and design

We’ve designed these templates so that you could use them ‘as is,’ but if you want, you can easily change both the description and style. For example, to change the text, just click it and type your copy. To change the font or color theme, use the Theme menu at the top.

Finally, if you want to replace the image, click it and either use the built-in image gallery or upload your own creative.

Step 3. Let customers add gift cards to the cart upon click

Assuming you’ve already created gift cards in your Shopify store, here is what you need to do. Click the first button and change the text on it to reflect the smallest gift card amount you have. Then hit + Add action and proceed to ‘Add custom product variants.’ From there, go to ‘Gift cards’ and select the corresponding gift card from the list.

Now, when a customer clicks that button, the gift card will be automatically added to their shopping cart. When it happens, a brief confirmation message will pop up to indicate that the card has been added. In our example, it’s “$10 gift card added to your cart,” but you can type any other text 👇

Repeat these steps with the rest of the buttons. If there are too many of them on the template, click on those you’d like to eliminate and hit ‘Remove button.’

The last button on this template is designed to take a customer directly to their shopping cart. To set it up, click the button, select ‘Open URL,’ and type your shopping cart URL, as illustrated below.

Step 4. Adjust displaying settings

By default, popups are displayed as soon as a visitor opens your website.

In this case, we want the card selection to pop up only when a visitor indicates they want to see it.

To do that, open the Targeting tab and remove the ‘automatically’ condition from the displaying settings.

Step 5. Pick a floating button or bar to launch gift card selection

Okay, we’re almost there. Now you need to select a floating button or bar that will launch the gift card selection. Again, check the gallery, pick a template, and add it to your dashboard.

You already know how to customize the text, adjust the design, and change the default displaying conditions, so we’ll skip that. Instead, let’s move on to the fun part.

Step 6. Connect floating button and selection popup

If you’ve selected a floating button, scroll down to Background click, remove the default action, and select ‘Show widget.’ Then pick the popup you’ve just created from the dropdown list.

If you’ve selected a floating bar or banner, click the button that is meant to launch the gift card selection popup, remove the default action, and select ‘Show widget.’ Then pick the popup you’ve just created from the list.

That’s it! Go ahead to Save & close in the top right corner and activate both widgets in your store. To view their performance, keep an eye on the Statistics report in your Getsitecontrol dashboard.

Tips for promoting gift cards on Shopify

Now that we’ve covered the technical part, here are a few tips and ideas to help you sell more gift cards.

1. Make sure customers can navigate to gift cards from any page

If you choose to offer gift cards using a pop-up recommendation, make sure you also create a floating button or even a special section in your store menu. It’s an elegant, unobtrusive reminder for those who decline the original offer or get distracted.

2. Use gift cards as incentives to upsell

As you probably know, Shopify allows you to sell gift cards or issue them for free. This means you can actually use gift cards as an incentive to encourage customers to reach a certain order amount (aka a popular upsell technique).

Just keep in mind that the process of issuing a gift card on Shopify isn’t quite automated. You’ll need to generate a gift card code, decide how much the card is worth, and email the code to a customer. In other words, if you’re going to consider this tactic, be prepared to invest some extra time.

3. Let your email subscribers know you’re offering gift cards

If you’re planning to send a newsletter to announce an upcoming holiday sale or a new product launch, make sure to remind your customers you’re offering gift cards. If gift cards were unavailable in your store before, launching them on its own can be a reason for a dedicated email campaign!

4. Offer a discount with a gift card

If you’re determined to increase gift card sales in your Shopify store, and if you can afford to offer a discount, consider doing it to incentivize buyers.

And yes, to make things easier, you can actually bake the discount code right into the gift card popup, so when a customer clicks the button, both the card and the discount go straight to their shopping cart.

Here is how to do it.

Remember the step when you adjust the button-click settings on the popup? In addition to the ‘Add to cart’ action, use the ‘Apply discount’ action and select the discount coupon from the list.

This, of course, means you need to generate those coupon codes in advance.

5. Publish reminders on social media

Whether you’re selling gift cards or not, remember that some of your social media followers might be unaware of that. Make sure you remind them that they can purchase gift cards from you! If your store has a Facebook page, you can even add gift cards as products to the Shop using ‘Commerce manager.’

6. Experiment with timing

In physical stores, gift cards are typically available on a stand somewhere close to checkout. For online stores, there’s no golden rule for when you should offer gift cards to customers.

Here are some ideas to help you get started:

• Add a floating ‘GIFT CARDS’ button, available site-wide at all times
• Instead of a button, you can add a compact floating bar
• Display a larger popup after a visitor spends some time in the store
• Remind about various gift card options in the shopping cart
• Offer a gift card + discount when the cart price reaches a certain amount

Want to experiment? You can select more than one tactic and display a site-wide floating button along with a reminder in the shopping cart, for instance. You can also run an A/B test to find out which wording or timing works better in your store.

Wrapping up

Gift cards have been a great source of relief for many ecommerce brands during the pandemic. They’ve allowed loyal customers to support their favorite stores with the much-needed cash flow.

However, even outside of the pandemic context, gift cards are an excellent, proven way to boost sales.

For one, gift cards can bring you new customers. Think about it. Сards are a go-to gift option, especially during the holiday season. If you make them available in your store, there’s a chance some gift receivers will become returning buyers.

For two, gift cards can increase your revenue because those who receive them are likely to spend more than the gift card amount, according to the statistics.

So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to create a selection of gift cards in your Shopify store and start promoting them. Getsitecontrol will help you succeed at the latter.